


Chained by memories

by smgmcrznana, Verdin



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Gen, Madness, Prison, loss of reality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-04-03 16:19:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13999923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smgmcrznana/pseuds/smgmcrznana, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verdin/pseuds/Verdin
Summary: It's the happy end.Everyone lives, even the baddies.But what does one do with a madman bent on world-destruction when you just want to go on with your lives and very aware that one part of the Prophecy still holds true? His death means your own, so you have to keep him alive somehow, and make your friends deal with it.Years later, Prompto is still very unhappy about the gift Noct gave to him, but he can't keep on keeping it wrapped nice and tight down in the basement any longer, even if will hurt not only him.





	1. Locked up

When Ardyn woke this time, he was not alone in the darkness of his cell. On the other side of the bars, there was a light, and there was _someone else_ , watching him by the light of the _candle_ , black fabric and golden hair streaked with silver.

"You look like shit, dude."

Prompto had taken his sweet time to come down here. This was the present Noct had given him on the day of the royal wedding, to do with it as he wished, and for years he had wished that he just had gotten a bottle of fizzy drink and a pretty memorial cup like everyone else. Somehow, he hadn't expected to find Ardyn like this, not with a golden chain around his neck, not with his head shaven to keep him from ripping out tufts of his own red locks, not in a simple white gown like they wore in the hospital. _He deserves this_ he tried to assure himself, but the bigger part of him was sure that _nobody_ deserved that.

"Have I disappointed you yet again, Your Majesty?" The voice gained familiarity at the last words. He sat up against the brick wall and let the back of his head meet it with a hard sound. The gown was loose and slipped down his shoulder as he did, the light from the candle that barely showed his face rested in the hollow of his crooked collarbone. Despite this Prompto could see that his eyes were alarmingly open, seemingly staring at nothing in particular for a while. Suddenly Ardyn blinked, and Prompto felt his gaze pierce his own, and Ardyn's mouth stretched wide, a broken smile with missing teeth.

 

Ardyn moved closer to the bars, as far as the chain allowed him. He stretched out his hand and closed it around steel, gently stroking a finger along the surface of rust and dried blood.

Prom looked down on him first, kneeled down on the floor then, blue eyes wide. "Do you... do you remember me?" _I hate you._ He wanted to say that, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, and he heard his own voice breaking. _I hate you and please remember me, for if you have forgotten what you did I..._ His own hand wrapped around one of the bars, just to steady himself. At first, that was. After a moment's hesitation, he touched the dirty fingers that had touched him against his will way too often, and he felt some of the hard lump of loathing inside him melt, leaving a little puddle of pity that seeped over all his dreams of revenge.

"Do you remember me, Ardyn?"

Where there should have been nails on Ardyn's fingers there was rough red skin, and Ardyn cocked his head from side to side slowly, like a dog pondering Prompto's words.

" _Ardyn..?_ Ardyn.. _Oh!_ Ardyn!"

He let his hand slide down the steel to touch the floor, holding Prompto's gaze until the spiritedness in his own faded. He lowered his eyes and focused on circling a fingertip in the dust.

"What do you want me to remember o' child of love, besides my very own name?"

 

_Astrals. What had they done to him? Revenge, of course, revenge, he was an evil man. He killed so, so many. Almost destroyed the world. He deserved all he was getting, more even._ Prompto tried to remind himself of that, and he cursed Noct for making _him_ deal with this. He knew the kings' fates were bound to each other, but it would have been better just to _not know_ , just to be fed a sweet lie.

"Do you know why you're here, Ardyn?" He repeated the name again, just to assure himself that this broken shell was the right man, was his torturer, was his _creator_ in a way.

"By the majesty's power and wish.." Ardyn lifted his hand and stretched out his body to point the dirty fingertip at Prompto, "That's why you're here too, is it not?"

“What? No! I'm here because I...“ He hesitated, but still said it, “...had to see you again.“ _To finally be through with it. So I can finally sleep in peace._

 

Ardyn's eyes grew suspicious. His mouth agape in shock, a theatrical deception that Prompto had seen before. But it was gone as soon as he sat back down, wrapping his fingers around his bony ankles, _too thin_ , the defeat on his face _too_ _real_ to Prompto.

"And what need do you have to fulfill down here in this pit, with _dear old_ me, my child?" Ardyn's voice was low, serious, but not the terrifying one that Prompto remembered, that sometimes still whispered into his ear at night.

_You once told me you loved me, and a part of me believed you. Wanted to believe you so desperately then, because you knew what I was, and you still..._ He marveled at his own, unhealthy thought. So this was what his therapist had wanted him to put into words. The self-reproaches that came now were ideas he only knew to well, and _no, he didn't want this, and he didn't deserve this, and he was lonely and scared and hurt_ , and a nagging little voice in his head told him that he once again was, lonely at least.

 

"Do you remember Doctor Besithia?" _Do you remember my father you made me kill? (Hadn't it been for the missing teeth and hair, the deprivation of light and kindness, identity and spirit, would Ardyn have looked like himself still, after all these years confined?)_

"Doctor.. Only _good_ doctors use a name. The ones that don't... well." Lowering his head to rest his chin on his knee, Ardyn still held onto his ankles, a thoughtful gaze.

"I cannot recommend them. What is your ailment?"

It seemed like he was speaking the words as if he could see them roll down his leg, and as much as Prompto tried not to stare further down at the flesh scarcely covered by gown and arms, dark marks that couldn't be shadows revealed themselves along Ardyn's thighs. Suddenly he spoke with excitement. "O' child! You are seeking a healer?"

 

_Shit. He was joking, right? He had to be joking. Please, someone who was listening still, let him be joking._

“Maybe? Are you one, Ardyn? Are you one _again_?“

Noctis had ripped the darkness from him, that he had told Prom proudly, and considered it the solution of this problem. Apparently, it was not, and he couldn't just hug this one out, as much as he would like to try this solution to all problems.

He eyed the keypad that kept the otherwise so ancient looking cell. Tried to remember the combination Noct had given to him years ago. _Would he..._

No. Not yet. But if he reached through the bars just like this, he could touch the dirty arm, console this wrecked creature, or maybe it was just his own need for human contact that drove him to do it.

 

The prisoner eyed the stretched out arm suspiciously, not daring to look anywhere else. Then he moved. Got on his knees with hands behind his back. Accepted defeat, took away the person that had been there in his body, and the creature once called Ardyn closed his eyes and rested his chin in Prompto's palm, a sob trembling in his throat that Prompto could feel through his fingers. Then his eyes opened wide, more desperate than feral, panic-stricken as he feared he had done wrong. Ardyn's body shook as he started to lick Prompto's hand instead, hurriedly sucking a finger into his mouth, drool already falling to his gown as he fought to keep tears at bay.

_No. No. Nonono. What was he...?_ Hurriedly Prom pulled away his hand, wiped it dry on his black shirt. “Fuck, dude, don't! You really...“ Realisation dawned on him. The position. The toothless mouth. _The poor man._

“You really don't have to do this. Not for me, okay? Please, don't do this for me...“

 

Ardyn didn't understand. He wanted so desperately to understand what the stranger wanted, what he had asked of him, and why his responses didn't work and made him act in the ways the others acted. _It was always bad when things didn't work_ . He bowed his head low and let the tears splatter on the floor, despite learning years ago that crying only made it worse, always worse, but he could not help himself. Not now, after a long period of only regulars visiting him, guests whose routines and wishes he knew, and knew how to just narrowly get a tiny piece of himself through to _survive_ , and suddenly a new one had to appear with all unfamiliar approaches and reactions. From experience this was the worst kind, and Ardyn just had to _learn_ , and learn fast.

The stranger's hand came down on his stubbly head, but instead of pain, there was only the warmth of another human. Nobody pushing him down, just an unassuming touch and a voice that repeated his name again and again.

_Of all things, they lock you up in darkness again. That's the worst they could have done to you, right? You fucking deserve punishment, but... there's nothing in here now, is it? Light is still on, but there's nobody at home._ The thought made Prompto tear up, and it made him angry, a helpless, aimless anger that needed to find a target, one that was not a broken man.

"I won't hurt you, Ardyn. I promise."

Ardyn tuned him out. It didn't matter what words they had for him, if they whispered sweetly or yelled. Once they started touching him they would get what they wanted from him anyway.

 

Prompto waited for an reaction, any reaction. Pulled the hand away in the end when nothing came. Sat back down on the floor and watched in silence.

_I shouldn't feel sorry for him. Don't want to. It's only fair and square and something he has done unto others for sure._ He scratched the faded tattoo on his wrist, the mark he wore out in the open by now, worn by time and sun.

 

His head didn't feel any lighter without the hand there, still bowed, falling over and sobbing, waiting for the inevitable _click_ of the door being unlocked, the sound he always waited for, a constant reminder that they only allowed him to be in this filthy hole for unspeakable acts to happen there, only _there_ , to keep their morality intact at all other times. Their debased needs were the only thing he was good for.

 

“Do you want me to leave?“ _Please, say something. Anything. Like “Oh, dear boy, quite the opposite,“ and then you smirk, and I can try to get away from you, and..._

Prom found himself gnawing on the nail of his thumb, a bad habit he had quit years ago.

 

It took a while for him to notice that he was still crying, that there had not been a fist to his head or wrapped around the fabric of his gown to push him down, that nothing had happened to him. The door was still in the frame, closed, and on the other side of the bars there was the young man, the stranger looking _stranger_ as he recognized an lost emotion in him. Ardyn stared, confused.

_Did his breathing calm, just a little bit? Was there something like self returned to his empty amber eyes?_ Prompto tried it again. “Hey? Shall I go away?“

 

Ardyn pressed his palms up against the bars, the firm chain keeping him from doing the same with his face. "Did you get what you needed from me, my child?" His voice croaked against the restraint, reddened eyes staring straight ahead.

“No. But I guess the man I was hoping to talk to is long gone.“ The stranger sounded close to crying himself. _This wasn't how he imagined things at all._

 

He looked at him, focused on the discomfort on the stranger's face and the hand held around the wrist. "I am right here." Ardyn nodded to himself and lifted a finger to his temple. "Right here."

Still on his knees he pulled up his gown and pointed a finger at his chest, deep faded cuts over his heart. "Right here."

 

“You once claimed you _loved me_ . But you don't remember that, and you were... not a very nice man then.“ _Not at all. And it was a short time after you..._ Prompto shook his head, trying to let the memories go that were still so vivid in his head.

 

He still held up the gown, still showing off all that he had left, the body that could _withstand_ , the body that had made him a _god_ , now reduced to a broken, abused fuck toy. "Did _you_ love me?"

_I hate you. You destroyed me._ Prom tasted blood. His teeth had torn a hangnail. “For a while, you were my life.“ His smile was pained.

 

As he let the gown fall his face remained sullen, his hands tightly brought together as if he was praying.

"Lift the candle to your face."

The corners of the blond's mouth dropped, but he nodded. Brought the candle up. Flickering light drew the contours of a face with huge blue eyes and bony, angular features that still managed to be _boyish_. He had given up on a beard years ago, instead chosen to grow out his hair that hung in a long braid over his shoulder. Years of traveling in the sun had made his freckles worse than ever.

 

He didn't look like his genetic father, the good doctor, but maybe it was just the different expression in the eyes. A lost kid here, a zealot there. Ardyn could see the boy didn't sleep much, eyes red and strained. A simple shirt, black or grey, both arms filled with colorful pictures under the skin, memories overwriting memories.

The lost man saw how the stranger's eyes closed after some time, how the soft long lashes rested upon the freckled cheeks, not to shield from the burning light, but from his seeking stare. He opened his mouth widely, sucked in loudly and deep and then with puckered lips and a harsh blow managed to blow out the candle.

A little, scared gasp. Prompto fumbled for the lighter. Took a deep breath and tried to relax, even without the little anchor the flame had given him. “Seen enough?“ he whispered.

 

_It was always more silent when there was no light, wasn’t it? Always so very silent here, even his own heartbeat gone. Did he even have one?_ Ardyn could not remember. The cell nothing more than a void, swallowing the tiniest spark, swallowing sounds and screams and memories until nothing remained.

He still was in two minds about whether he liked the silence here. Just the same with the dark. Sometimes it was soothing and safe, but sometimes the dark made him see things he didn't want to see, wanted to forget, or had forgotten and remembered, or worst of all, was just making up. Just silly little ideas coming to life to make sure his brain was still working, nothing more, right?

But at least the cell was still the same, allowed to decay alongside him. He knew it so well, and he knew the chain, somehow his to command, at least when he was alone, after years of resenting it. He knew how to make it follow his movements, knew its sounds and its weight, how tightly it stretched between his throat and the wall it was fastened to, how it scraped along the floor. It was always the same routine to make it his, as much as he could, whenever they changed the restraint.

 

It was only a short moment, but Ardyn had no sense of time anymore. No need to want or wait for anything when nothing followed any structure anyway. He only counted seconds when forced to.

He sat down in the corner he kept clean and let his head and body be without him, be a part of the dark that he often wished would take him to wherever it went.

 

“Ardyn?“ It was almost a whimper. _He scares me. Still does. Somehow does more than he ever did, and he can't hurt me now, I know he can't, it is not in his power, and there are no daemons in this dark anymore, and if I only could stop trembling. He's fucking with me. That's all he is. Just pretending to be mad as a hatter to.._.

“Do you want me to go, dude?“

 

The rattle of the chain started quietly, but became more intense and startling as Ardyn clashed it against the walls. To _him_ it was comforting, because _he_ had made it do that. A song he and his cell created all on their own, and sometimes even the voices in the dark joined in. He slapped his other hand on his chest, knees and thighs, hard and fast, warming up the sore spots on his body now that he had the chance, provoking his visitor enough to _affect_ his decisions with the onslaught of sounds. It was a song to no one, nor a prayer, but Ardyn hadn't heard the door open in the dark yet and started to feel maybe, just _maybe_ there still was magic in him.

"You are still here. Why? What use am I to you, my child.. when you can't even enter the cell as they told you you must."

 

“I'm here because I _wanted_ it. Because I needed to know if you were still the...“ _Monster. Say it._ “...man I remember.“ With every word, the voice sounded a bit less lost. _You have no power over me. Not anymore._ If he told himself often enough, Prom would believe it one day.

"Who even remembers anymore? No point to it, to the past or the future. The present..."

Ardyn had made the sounds stop, listening intently now to what the dark had to offer.

"Aren't we all better off forgetting, child?"

The darkness around him was silent. Had been, since he laid eyes upon the stranger. _Tasted_ him. How very peculiar.

 

“I tried. I can't. Really tried, on all the ways.“ The boy's voice wasn't as scratchy as Ardyn _remembered_ , being stuck in eternal puberty, but there was still just the right amount of despair in it, and it felt... it felt like _something_. How very peculiar indeed.

_Why can't I let go? Everyone else can, but me... I'm still stuck in the past, trapped like he is. I did try everything, right? Only that the drugs don't work cause I'm a fucking clonebaby and running away doesn't work and staying somewhere else doesn't either and holy shit don't start crying now._ Prompto sniffed.

It had been a long time since Ardyn had heard someone one cry. Someone else beside himself, and for other reasons than pain. Her remembered though, slowly but surely.

He knew fear all too well. Knew he put a certain _fear_ into people still. Despair too. People who came to abuse him possessed them all in various degrees, and this fear from the other of the bars came from..

"Sweet child, would it be better if I was dead? That's what they all say.. that's what _you_ said." Ardyn scratched at his bald head, hard as he could with slow growing nails, felt the well-known red lines burn across his skull.

 

_Yes. No. Maybe. Crap._ "I don't know." Two heavy breaths, then a decisive "No."

_You need to explain things to me. So many things._ "It's too late for that. And it wouldn't change a thing, and with you gone, I..." _I'd be nothing more than the mad former concubine of a busy king, old and worn and thrown away when the anxieties became work instead of charming. As long as you are here, he's at least reminded it's not my fault, and.._.

Prom hesitated. Swallowed hard. "I need to know you're real."

"You need me to be that monster for you.. to you?" There came a scraping noise from the cell. "Throw in the lighter."

“You fucked me up. Don't even remember it. And you said you loved me, and you broke me, and still... I believed you.“ The lighter clicked against the ground. _What am I even doing here? Why do I sound like he's my fucking ex?_ “I need to know _why_ , and you can't tell me, because they did the same shit to you you did to me, only they had way more time, and...“ His voice ebbed.

 

"You came all this way down here to visit little ol' me when you already know the answer. Is that the way of the _saved_ , Prompto?"

The clicks of the lighter sounded from the corner once or twice, tiny sparks that flickered in the dark until there remained a stable flame, appearing like it was made from Ardyn's hand. Prompto could see fingers dancing above it, and through it, could see Ardyn's weary smile when he held it to his face. Ardyn blew the flame out.

_Click. Click_ . A new spark flickered light into existence, just lingering in the dark. Suddenly the flame got bigger, a moment before Prompto realized what he was seeing. A fire spread through thin frail threads of the gown, engulfing the man wearing it. Slow, mesmerizing and _real_ , white and orange warmth brightened the cell, the pieces of the gown crumbling apart and burning into Ardyn's body, ash falling away into the nothingness all so clear to Prompto. Ardyn was screaming. The unbearable heat coursed through his muscles and made him move, slap at himself, a frantic fire dance of skin and hair and filth of the body singed and burnt, purified everything with its abhorrent smell.

 

Prompto did not look. Held his hands over his ears. Waited, just waited for it to be over. No tears. He could not cry about this kind of horrors anymore.

_They told me I could do with you what I want. Kill you over and over again, til my need for revenge was satisfied. You can't even allow me that_.

As the flames suffocated, a new one grew in the man's heart, pure and white and made of anger, and for a long while he just stared into the direction of the twitching, wailing heap of human flesh on the floor. “Finished now, you damn idiot?“

 

"Magic, it seems... is no substitute to the real thing." He pressed his hands to his face. Moved them down over the hot collar that burned into his throat, felt soft, pliable skin, the heat that still seared beneath disfiguring his body. The cell was dark once again, and silent besides a very, very quiet hum from Ardyn as he picked at his body idly, melted fabric and tissue feeling the same.

“Can I have my lighter back now? Or do you wanna try to scorch your eyeballs or something? Because if that's what you consider entertainment these days, I'd rather not stay to watch.“ The boy was angry. Impatient. _Coming here was the worst idea._

 

"You only came here to get something from me.. as all the others.. as everyone ever has done." The lighter was thrown through the air and made a loud noise as it hit one of the bars, landing just within reach for Prompto. "So take it then." His voice was hoarse, somehow not from the burns that constricted his every move now, but from defeat again.

“What the fuck do you expect? You almost destroyed Eos, you killed a shitload of people and have been a general meanie. Shall I ask pretty please, dearest Ardyn, so I may have back my lighter? You won't help me, cause of course you won't, because there might be nothing in it for you, and you still act like an pretentious asshat after all these years. Grow the fuck up, man!“ Prompto's voice had grown louder with every word, and in the end, he was screaming, screaming at Ardyn and the world in general.

 

A long silence, and a weird serenity in Ardyn’s voice. "So.. take it, then. Take it all. There's nothing else for you to do here, but take and take.. and take.. and take.." He kept whispering, almost a hum again, and Prom crouched forward to pick the damn thing up. Turned it between his fingers, felt the metal still warm from the fallen healer’s folly.

Something hit the prisoner then, not hard enough to hurt, something small and plastic. “Fucking _keep_ it then, and keep the whole rest you got of me. Nobody wants it anyway.“

Prompto got up in a hurry. _Don't fucking cry._

 

"Still a scared, lost child after all these years.. They left you, didn't they?"

“When the war is over, you no longer need the soldiers, and a soldier is all I am.“ He leaned heavy against the bars. “Just a reminder of dark times. On the winning side, for a change.“ _Who thought we'd have something like this in common? Unwanted relics, nothing more._

"Soldiers, healers. Kings.. We're all just pawns, my child.." With difficulty Ardyn played with the lighter, managed a few brightening sparks before it fell from his hand. He was still lying on his back, staring into the dark, his thoughts of a blond boy becoming more and more vivid, the boy in question really speaking to him now? How peculiar..

 

“Shall I leave you the candle?“ _I want to leave. It is enough. More than enough. This is leading nowhere._ “I'll try to see that they don't hurt you anymore.“

He threw the lighter back. It flew through the bars this time. "Leave nothing if you truly wish me no harm."

 

The boy sighed and took with him what he brought without another word, even though he stood for a while at the bars, trying to find the composure he needed to face the guards.

Then he left. The heavy door closed behind him.

Ardyn was left alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Time passed. Ardyn's senses passed. Came back when they brought him food. Tasteless gruel in a plastic bowl, liquid enough to drink, but served without the usual extra helping of spicy pain. It seemed that the boy had indeed done something, even if he probably wouldn't come back. Would never come back. How peculiar. There was a faint little chirping in a hollow in his chest, a bird weak from cold and hunger, close to death. Still he sat in darkness, with his hand in his mouth. He ran his fingertips across the teeth that had grown back, along their ridges and jagged edges, felt how he had once again become whole, slow but steady - as whole as he could physically be in the pit where he was sentenced to be rapidly torn apart again and again. The disgusting taste of the food still lingered, on his fingers, teeth, on everything his tongue touched, and he felt the drowsiness that he knew to be natural, not the _drugged_ kind, set in him. Through years of endless inseparable days he had learned to sense when there would be peace from people, and so Ardyn laid down on his side, his hands the pillow that kept his head from the cold hardness of floor, and closed his eyes. Allowed himself the inconsequence of sleep.

Somebody had been.there during his sleep on silent feet, and they had left things. A blanket, and food, real food, in a plastic container, even if it was only fresh bread, soft enough for a man without teeth to chew on, and a _light_ , a silly little rubber nightlight for small children in the shape of a chocobo. Things that would make it as difficult as possible to _hurt_ yourself with them. It was the light that had slowly brought him back. Irritated his eyes, unused to things that bright. Frightened him for a bit. _Chocobos, when was the last time he had even seen one of those? Doesn't matter.._

If the guards found the items there would be trouble, but Ardyn had nowhere to hide them. Clawing and kicking at the walls hadn't even caused pebbles to crumble down in all the years he had spent in the cell, and he had given up the hope that if he just kept at it escape would be true someday. He decided to leave them be, just where they had been pushed through the bars, this too just another cruel joke. He remained on the floor to wait for the inevitable punishment. One didn’t have to be awake to _wait_.

They were still there when he woke next time, even though the guard had taken away the empty bowl of gruel. Didn't even wake him for it. Didn't kick him for the usual friendly _“good morning asshole“_ they tended to give. It seemed the boy had kept his word. For the first time since an eternity in darkness, Ardyn was left alone.

Outside, Prompto was playing a game of "Oh no, this did not happen". He was good at it, a lifetime of training in a world where _everybody_ played that.The night after he left Ardyn, he tried drinking, drowning the memories in alcohol like a reasonable adult, but that just got him violently sick, even though the time he spent over the toilet was blissfully free of thoughts.

When he woke at noon, his head ached, and there was a knot of guilt in his stomach, and he decided to use the combination for _a stern talking_ to the guards down at the prison of his liability, channeling Ignis as well as he could. Bringing down some things for the old man. Not really feeling better afterwards, but at least, not worse either.

Visited Noctis, then, fully intent on confronting him, but as he met him, happy and smiling with the two little ones, he just could not bring himself to it. Started snapping pictures instead, because seeing the life through a lense had always been easier. Less painful. This way, he just could cherish the pleasant memories. Ignore the rest. It was the _right thing to do_ , right?

Nothing had happened since Prompto's visit. It worried Ardyn. He started asking the guards questions, begged them for their knowledge of anything, but most they did was spit in his direction, verbally threatening him when he got too hysterical. But that was _all_. His usual visitors had stopped coming. _Was this really the boy's doing?_ His body had healed as well as it could, was without pain for once. There had been a certainty to the cruelty, to the regular beatings and special visitors, but now, with _nothing_ happening, with just Ardyn allowed to be by himself and alive, he feared the worst, that something very bad was going to happen soon.

These thoughts, of _when_ it would happen and _how,_ made it hard to relax, to fall asleep in the quiet cell, with the cozy blanket and the light he now was using just as a reminder that he was still at someone's mercy.  
  
He had made a new routine to incite sleep, to stop the thoughts. He would lie down and lift the light, illuminating the walls and the ceiling. It was the first time he truly had the chance to explore what had been his home and hell. It was not a pleasant thing to do. Ardyn could have sworn he saw things in the corners. That the cell was getting smaller. These feverish visions exhausted him enough to let troublesome sleep finally take him.

And _something bad_ happened indeed.

They brought him back.

When he woke, the air was warm, not pleasantly so, but drowningly, warm and salty like blood, and he blinked into a faint golden light he knew so well. This was every morning for lifetimes, peaceful and silent and lonely. He was _home_ , back in Angelgard.

Ardyn sat up, rested his forearm on his knee and looked around. There was no one, nothing that he hadn't seen before in this desolate place.. but he sensed there was something different. Something other than the sweltering heat and the suffering it brought to his flesh. He wore only a robe, but that already was too much. Every movement of his body was a heavy, daunting task as he felt small beads of sweat tickle behind his ear and run down his neck. There had to be a bad reason for why he was here _again_ , stuck in repetitive penalty. He started to curse the Astrals under his breath.

Somebody coughed. Not him. Somebody outside the window, where the world happened without him.  
  
“We can hear you quite well, you know?“ The voice of a _girl_ , quite young and bright as a bell. She sounded vaguely _pissed_ , a kid being forced to visit an elderly and weird-smelling relative with a horrible taste in candy.

"Oh well, make yourself known then, and I _might_ watch my tone." Ardyn glanced around, saw nothing still. _A child? Come now..._ Maybe he was just imagining things again, maybe the heat had already gone to his head. He shrugged, and blew out of long breath in an attempt to cool down.

She climbed up on the windowsill, or floated there, he was not sure. Not more than a decade old, in a tattered green dress, the short hair wild, with tiny sparks dancing between the strands. “The old man wanted to talk to you, but he's taking a nap, and the way you are, _little old me_ is more than enough.“ Sharp silver claws on her bare feet.

Ardyn walked over to her, too lazy and sweating to saunter as he otherwise intended to. "How nice it must be to take a nap and have little ones run one's errands.. lazy _Astrals_." He looked through the window at her, unimpressed. "Be a dear and tell me, how do I turn off this heat?"

“Can do it for you, for five G.“ She beamed with pointy teeth. “That's all a contract costs. Because you asked so nicely.“

"A contract for a little humane air conditioning..?" Ardyn sighed and tapped her nose. "Is there nothing for you to do here besides being occupied with trifle means and scam decent folk?"  
  
“Well, I'm also here talking to you, ain't I? We can also make a contract for something more _exciting_ , but alas, you got no coin on you. Or do you want to barter like in the old days, before your time? One of those pretty golden eyes, maybe, for an important wish? Besides...“ She pouted, fully aware that she looked _cute_ when she did, “I don't scam mortals. Not my style.“  
  
"Contracts, wishes, _mortals_ .. all beneath me, dear. Astrals.." He sneered, at _them_ , momentarily gone in foul thoughts before he smiled at the strange child, picking a stray hair away from her face. "Shouldn't you be off to school or playing or whatever it is little ones do.. wouldn't want to make the Astrals mad now, would you?"  
  
His fingers prickled as he touched her. “No good storm nowhere. Nothing to do.“ She imitated his gesture, her little fingers in his face, leaving tiny electric shocks and the smell of burned hair. “And they don't care. You know they don't, mortal. Those days are over.“ She didn't sound particularly sad about it.  
  
He merely listened, detached from what she was doing to him, letting her play as he looked above her at nothing in particular. Cursed thoughts still filled his head, despite his nonchalant appearance. "Hmm." Ardyn swallowed deep, felt how thirst hurt his throat in a way he had long forgotten. The little air that came through the window brought no relief for the heat that still suffocated him. "Only care enough for us to do their awful bidding still, I see... So what has changed, child?"  
  
“ _They_ came and their reign and their bureaucracy. Took away the fun. Oh well, you won't remember that, it was before your time, and _they_ don't exactly talk about it. At least, you understood fun. I give you that. Rare with your kind.“  
  
"And you know who I am, but I have no idea who you are.." Ardyn turned around, a swirl with arms wide open, welcoming nothing into his embrace, indolently dancing away from the child.  
  
"Oh, I know, Ardyn-almost-Lucis-Caelum-Izunia. Tough luck for you once again. Aren't you used to that by now?" She sounded bored by his antics. Scratched her stubby little nose.

"There's no emperor around here. Stop playing the jester." The promise of broken kneecaps in her voice.  
  
"Precisely, dear child! There is no one around here. I can do whatever I want, without repercussion, without hearing their cowardly threats.." Ardyn’s loud words ebbed out into the empty space of Angelgard, but the bitterness remained as he sat down where he had woke. "Oh little one.. what would you have me do?"  
  
She cocked her head. "Do I look like I _care_ , human? Do whatever you _want_. I know what Old Man Thunder wanted to ask you, and now I wonder _why_."

"So who are you then, child? Privy to such mighty folks and knowledge." Ardyn looked over his shoulder at her, his sudden disdain well hidden.

"Just a messenger these days. _Of no consequence_ , you know how these things go." She curled a tiny lightning bolt around her finger. "One is easily forgotten with a new captain at the steering wheel. Why don't you just spare the pleasantries and ask what you _want to know_? It's not like you mortals care for anyone but your squishy little selves."

Ardyn let out a hum. "It's been so long since I was forced to reside here so atrociously.. why _indeed_ after so long, am I back, with no one but a brat to welcome me?" He hooked a finger under the collar of his robe and shook it. "And why is _my squishy self_ acting like a _body?_ " He tried to recall what that even meant, perspiration and thirst he couldn't pretend weren't worrying him. _Mortal..? But still not dead.. Cruel._

“Because nobody but the smallest of gods still gives a fuck about you. Ain't that bad. Gives a certain possibility for _freedom_ if you play your cards right.“

"With the cards I've been dealt in the past.. " Ardyn sighed. He laid down on his back and intertwined his fingers on his chest, closed his eyes. "Alright, child. Let us play your game."  
  
Suddenly she sat beside him, a pack of cards between her fingers. “Mix them and draw one. Lay it on the ground face down.“

Ardyn held out a hand, waved it about wildly until she finally placed the deck there. He shuffled the cards on his chest, looking like a drunken gambler with his eyes still closed and disheveled sweaty hair sticking to the sides of his face. He opened his eyes only to check which side the deck showed as he picked a card to lay down as he still was, all drained and bored. "There." He simply said, putting his arm behind his head to rest again. Now he had done as told and was _through_ with it. "It's so exhausting you know, child?"

“You were not made for eternity, so it ain't no wonder that there is a day where you can't go on. That day has passed...about a thousand years ago, something like that?“  
  
"Ah. Must you remind me?" He smiled mischievously. "You are quite the historian. An admirer even, perhaps?"  
  
“Heh. You wish. Turn the card. What you see is a hint for the first step on your way to absolution. If you wanna know, of course.“  
  
Ardyn lazily turned on his side and looked down on the card, drumming his fingers on the ground for a moment. It was a fun pause for him, testing the girl's patience rather than contemplating her game and if he _wanted_ to play. Finally he looked up, _booped_ the girl on the nose again and turned the card.  
  
"Oh sweet child, is that me? You've made me a character in your game..? Do tell me what it means!" There on the card was a colorful image of a young man, dressed in clothes Ardyn could appreciate, keenly looking at the long thin staff he was holding.  
  
“Nah, that's not you. That's who you need. Somebody who's happy and optimistic and a dreamer and...“ She drew another card. This one dark and gloomy, a horned figure on it, Ifrit-like, but different, one hand held up. At his feet a human couple. Laid it down on the first card. “Somebody who's dreams and hopes dragged him down. Ruined him. A former lover, maybe?“  
  
He picked up the second card and studied it briefly, enamored, put it back down. "Child, that is a fancy tale you're weaving.."

She rolled her eyes. "You think I'm making shit up, right? Moogle it, man. Oh wait, you won't be getting out to do it. Heh. Poor little Ardyn. Shall I stop? We can play Poker, if you rather do that. Just pretty boring without anything to place bets."  
  
"Oh, that _hurt_." He pouted in mock humility. "Children are so mean in their honesty! And limitless in their imagination.. but do go on." His lips curled, a smile replacing the pout.  
  
“How did you get anything out of anyone when you're like this? Except for a kick against the shin? Are humans really that stupid these days?“  
  
"Are you saying you won't go on? So delicate too.." He rolled onto his back again, looking away from her piercing eyes that did make him feel _something_. _Regretful? No, that's not it._.  
  
“I'm saying I'll kick you if you go on like this.“ He couldn't tell how serious she was about that.

With eyes closed, he looked rambling again as he waved his hands about, pleading, defeated. "I apologize, child! Can I be forgiven, and this forgotten? How do I best accommodate you, my dear? I'm all ears."  
  
She was behind him again, her nails scratching over the stubble on his chin like she was petting a naughty dog. “Wanna play _for_ something? I know you have nothing now, but that doesn't have to stay that way.“  
  
Laughter erupted from Ardyn, to his own surprise. His smile lingered as she resumed scratching. "Alright child. What do I have to lose.."  
  
“Depends on what you want to bet. So. What shall it be? Favors, like in the old days?“  
  
"The good old days.. " He looked into her eyes for something fiendish among the innocence and nodded. "I shall wager a favor in return for..?"  
  
"Me telling you about your path, dummy. Handy information about a possible future. Or me just being kind enough to talk to you, which nobody else will. Whatever you prefer."

Her eyes were the grey of storm clouds, distant lighting caught within, and easily the most inhuman thing about her. He tried to tangle her hair around his finger, failed as she moved her head away, and instead gently tapped on her nose again.  
  
"And this favor, of what consequence will it be?

“Don't know yet. Maybe none at all, who knows. Maybe something really important. That's a risk you gotta take.“ She smiled, or bared her teeth.

"Always a _risk_ indeed.. Any old favor you want from me shall be yours then. On my word my child. Let us quit bantering and see where your little game takes us. Ah! So terribly _exciting_.."  
  
The next card she placed showed a man carrying a bundle of wooden staffs, suffering under their burden. "This is what you think. That you are alone, with no one to help you, and you still believe that your goal is not far, even if you struggle under the weight."  
  
"You know, dear, I think getting somebody to carry a bunch of sticks for me would be quite manageable and no problem at all.."  
  
“Wasn't that what you tried the last years? Well, that worked out perfectly well.“  
  
Ardyn couldn't help but smile widely at the verve the tiny, tiny creature possessed. "Guess that's why I'm here.. having my fortune told by you."  
  
"Nope, that's because I'm bored. You wanna know what Old Man Thunder wanted of you or not so much, because it surely won't be anything nice?" She held out the deck for him to pull another one, showed him where to lie it down. On it a bound woman between a bunch of swords, and she didn't look too happy.

At the gruesome card he sat up, effortlessly and almost soundless, to stare down at it, his answer a nonchalant shrug. "Games sure have changed a lot from when I was a child.."

"Because these are games for grown-ups. Your mommy probably didn't allow you to partake in them, and neither did the laws of Solheim. Some good old-fashioned witchcraft, nothing more."

"Nothing more, indeed.." He picked up the card, knowing it was uncouth and would irritate her, began to wave it like a fan against his face. "Ah, child! I fear that the end is near! I am stuck in this sweltry inferno and you're taking your time turning pretty pictures.."  
  


***

 

“Well, that's _new_ ,“ one guard said to the other. She had been brought in as a witness for the prisoner's unusual behaviour. “But it seems he's enjoying himself.“  
  
“Who the fuck is he talking to?“  
  
“Dunno, don't care. But there's one thing I know, and that is he's not our problem anymore. Let's send his nanny a message and take our coffee break.“

 

***  
  
  
  


“We've been there, Ardyn. And you don't fear, you wish. Remember that?“ A little nervous spark shot from her eye.  
  
Ardyn hunched forward and rested his head in his hand, stared at her with a pleading expression in his eyes. He liked the child, he really did, but surely she could make the effort to understand the insufferable position he was in? There was a fading smile on his face, underneath all the sweaty hair, as he began to speak.

"And you make wishes come true. So can we proceed along at a quicker pace, my child? We're not getting any younger unfortunately.."  
  
The repetitive noise the tarot card made as he kept fanning it was soothing, but he was still forlorn in his pursuit for just one moment of _breathable_ existence.  

  


***

 

“Astrals, see what he is doing with his hand? Poor bastard must have forgotten how to masturbate properly, heh.”  
  
"Oh, damn you. Why do you say such things?" He punched her hard in the shoulder, but joined her dirty chuckle.

 

***  
  
  
  
  
"And we aren't getting any older either, as far as I know, but as you like..."  
  
The next cards were turned in quick succession. Pictures of people the made no sense to Ardyn, a tower that came tumbling down, and in the end, the eternal grin of a skeleton. The girl's face grew more worried with each card.

"The cards do not seem to please you, my dear. I thought they were under your will.."

The card Ardyn still held between two fingers was slightly bent by its use as a pitiful fan. He straightened it out before placing it on the ground with the rest of the cards. He hadn't really paid attention to what they showed, more what they made show on her face as lightning sparks grew faint and thoughts raced through her worrisome head. Her eyes still reading the cards were sorrowful, the most soft and _childlike_ he had seen during their meeting. _Out of her depth, just like me_. Maybe this child had been telling the truth despite her silly games.

Ardyn placed his hand on her shoulder softly, more to calm her than to steer her into action. "Oh, do not tell me your pretty pictures are making you cry..”

"If I wanted to tell you my opinion, buddy, I wouldn't need any cards, I'd just tell you. And they very much do not agree with the general opinion of those who brought you here." Little nervous lights danced on her fingers. "They might be joking anyway, so don't get your hopes up."

There was a hesitation in her voice that made Ardyn wonder more about the girl's role in all of this than his own, her possible gains and losses that had lead her to being his reluctant, ardent guide in this very moment. _There is always an arcane design in motion underneath it all.. always. It had to be.._  
  
"Very well then, everybody seems to have an odd sense of humor around me.." Ardyn’s hand found her tiny fingers, stinging his with their lightning, the odd, hard sensation not enough to keep him from fidgeting with them or the cards beneath.  
" That dreadful, is it? The story the cards tell.. Oh dear me."  
  
“Really want me to tell you?“ She allowed the tiny sparks to run over his hand, creating a strange sense of connection.

"Are we _not_ having fun? Did I _not_ wager a favor for it, my child?" Ardyn’s eyes were soft and compassionate before he closed them, letting go of her piercing hand. "We both know you need to tell me.. "

“Then come here.“ A wave of her small finger as she beckoned him to come closer.  “This is between you and me...“  
  
This close, she smelled like the air before a storm. Ardyn lowered forward once more and lend his ear to her as she whispered secretively, harshly as children do...

 

  
  
The heat that had suffocated him was no more as he opened his eyes to sudden darkness, unfamiliar and scary until he focused on the little beacon of light that was the chocobo light. After some time, the shouting voices of guards and their ferocious beating on the bars became clearer and clearer. Ardyn finally understood where he was.

_What have you done, my child?_

  
"--up, you piece of shit!"  
  
  
  
He was _home_.  


And yet, still the soft light of the small yellow bird was there, and the blanket over his shoulders, and Prompto _yes he recognized him knew him_ telling them to _go away it was okay he was awake now he would take care of this please leave_ and then his name, again and again. _Ardyn._

 

"Ardyn. Hey..."


End file.
